false 19 164 164 true 5640387 read 0 true 1554999 currently-reading 0 true 1554998 to-read http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/80514277 to: Sissinghurst: An Unfinished History (Hardcover) by Adam Nicolson
Adam Nicolson is a brilliant writer. In this book he encapsulates the Kentish Weald house of Sissinghurst from Saxon days to the present. His grandparents Harold Nicolson and Vita Sackville West famously renovated the house and constructed the garden and their story and that of his father Nigel are intermeshed. Adam has a vision for the future of Sissinghurst which must be doubted but he has the bravery of his intentions. The book is packed full of wonderful writing.
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/77541945 to: Family Britain, 1951-1957 (Hardcover) by David Kynaston
A fascinating insight into my early teenage years documenting the constraints on my parents.
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/77541892 to: Austerity Britain, 1945-1951 (Tales of a New Jerusalem) by David Kynaston
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/76624546 to: The Last Fighting Tommy: The Life of Harry Patch, the Oldest Surviving Veteran of the Trenches (Hardcover) by Harry Patch
A wonderful book for those with a knowledge of the Bath area and an interest in the Great War. Harry Petch came from Combe Down in Bath and as a teenager was wounded at Passchendaele. His family was relatively prosperous and he had a good life as a plumber. He was in the AFS in the Second World War experiencing the Bath Blitz when 400 people died in a Baedeker Raid. It wasnt till he got to a hundred that he started talking about his experiences in the Great War and he became a national figure portrayed on TV and in poetry. He died aged 111 this year.
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/75504478 to: Me Cheeta: The Autobiography (Paperback) by James Lever
A wonderful book beautifully written. Very funny and very moving. A tale of love.
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/75263443 to: Music and the Mind (Paperback) by Anthony Storr
All of the late Anthony Storr's books are worth reading. He was an eminent British psychiatrist who is always fascinating when discussing Freud and Jung. This book concerns his love of music and he finds himself most at home when talking about Nietzsche. But it is the arousal of music that produced this music and he analyses its reality.
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/74304405 to: The Book of Dead Philosophers (Paperback) by Simon Critchley
A lot of old friends here... not that I ever understood a word of what they were talking about. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/71748266 to: What Next?: Surviving the Twenty-first Century (Paperback) by Chris Patten
A magisterial worldview of the problems facing us in the coming century. Very readable.
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/70376181 to: It's All Greek to Me: From Achilles' Heel to Pythagoras' Theorem: How Ancient Greece Has Shaped Our World (Paperback) by Charlotte Higgins
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/70376052 to: The Kit-Cat Club: Friends Who Imagined a Nation (Paperback) by Ophelia Field
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